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Top-level Obama, Romney surrogates to debate foreign policy at ASU


September 14, 2012

The university community and public are invited to attend a foreign policy debate on Sept. 19 at Arizona State University between top-level surrogates of the Obama and Romney presidential campaigns. The event is hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for a New American Security, and the New America Foundation.

Dov S. Zakheim, special advisor on foreign policy and national security for the Romney campaign, will join Janine Davidson, advisor on national security issues for the Obama campaign, to discuss the defense and foreign policy agendas of the two candidates.

This is the fifth in a series of events that continues a unique collaboration among these institutions during the U.S. presidential campaign season. Past conversations have covered the U.S. role in the world, the U.S. national security budget, and U.S. policy in East Asia and the Middle East.

In addition to Zakheim and Davidson, speakers include: Arizona State University President Michael Crow; Thomas Donnelly, resident fellow and co-director of the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for a New American Security; and Peter Bergen, director of the New America Foundation's National Security Studies Program.

What: "Election 2012: The National Security Agenda"
When: 6-7:30 p.m. MST, Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Where: Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Rd., Tempe, AZ  85287
Webcast: The debate will be webcast on CNN's Opinion page at 6 p.m. MST.

About the New America Foundation
New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.

About the Series:
This fall's presidential election comes at a critical moment for the United States and the world. The demands for U.S. leadership are substantial – particularly in the dynamic Middle East and Asia-Pacific--yet fiscal challenges are forcing reductions in defense spending, sparking new thinking about American engagement with the world. In this important election season, many Americans will look to the next U.S. president to repair the economy, but he will nonetheless inherit complicated military and diplomatic engagements and govern as commander-in-chief of the globe's most powerful nation. As a result, the discussion of national security issues must take a central role in the 2012 presidential election. This event is the fifth in a series of campaign-season seminars on the critical issues of U.S. foreign and defense policy, sponsored by AEI, the Center for a New American Security and the New America Foundation.

Media Contact: 
Sharon Keeler, sharon.keeler@asu.edu, 480-965-4012